Atheist Church? Why Not Atheist Temple?

I saw what appeared to be a survey asking what people thought about atheist churches on the main screen a while back. That puzzled me. If the question was about having facilities to help indoctrinate secular values into youth, I would think that atheists would have the sense to not indicate a particular religion when doing so. Atheists can be former Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, etc. and even born and raised atheists. I support the notion of advocating secular values, but I would like to use a term like temple. I know, some people would say that temple indicates Judaism, but there are many cultures that make "temples". There are Buddhist temples, Jewish temples, Greco-Roman temples and temples of doom. What do you think?

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Monthly meetings are difficult. I live about two hours from the closest monthly meetup. I don't expect it to grow too much. I know of a handfull of other atheists in my own community, and we could split off our own group, but people do have lives, which makes things a bit problematic. We aren't devoted to saving our souls by going to meetups. We are liberals and conservatives, libertarians and anarchists, Those who believe in Rawlesian justice and Nietzshian will to power. Perhaps the best bet is to rally around the freedom to express one's self. I like your speed dating notion. I would love to talk to other people who have had experiences like my own and possibly have similar interests. This is very difficult at the moment.

Churches, Temples, and mosques are all gathering places dedicated to the worship of deities.
Using any of those terms suggests a similarity with that goal and seems uncomfortable to me. Further, it seems that our basic tribal sensitivities survive our secularization, as is evidenced by this discussion topic itself. For example, an atheist who is a converted Jew may still feel annoyed at the atheist center being called a church.
IMO, the generic term we're looking for is "a school". We could simply call it the AN School, or if we're feeling more ambitious, the College of AN, or for that matter, the AN University.

Prior to retirement, I never said I was an Atheist. Agnostic, yes. For 22 years now I say flat -out, I'm an Atheist. This has made me many friends & some enemies. I cherish both. My own 'kids' aren't Atheists. They accept that I am & I accept that they aren't. And we love each other. I'm as active in this as my 84 years allows me. On my good days I still enjoy life, on bad days, I look FORWARD to my 'departure'. The best sleep I ever got.

I very much disagree with Sam on that...I don't think hiding is at all beneficial. Sure it sounds silly to have a group of people whose major point of commonality is not believing in gods...but it's only necessary because the majority of the population are under such delusions...and many seek to deprive the rest of us of rights because of those delusions.

About 12 years ago I joined a small group of ex-christians. We subsequently named ourselves PAN (Pa.NonBelievers) Now we have over 300 members, with monthly meetings, followed by a social event for those who want it. Also a monthly publication. Also we have solstice picnics & parties. What's in a name anyway ? ( rhetorical question - ignore it.)

Yeah, I like refuge, but much more than religion, the word temple inspires awe. A temple is a grand structure with a grand purpose. There is no reason for people to think that without religion, there is no awe or awesomeness in our lives.

I like the idea of using terms like "agora" and "forum", as they definitely separate Atheism from from Theism.

Here's the problem I have with the whole idea: No matter what name you put on it, Theists will see them as churches and see Atheism as a religion, further promoting ignorance. I'm not sure how to prevent this, since I do like the idea of a common meeting place for Non-Theists, but there must be some better way. Perhaps something more along the lines of a Freethinkers Forum or something...

I agree. The terms, forum, agora, institute, and academy sound good to me, but as you say someone will accuse us of being a religion. However, by avoiding all appearance of religion and even a name for ourselves, we invite others to say that we are missing something of our humanity. That we don't have religion, but we have nothing to make up for it in a way. We can't win in the world of PR.